Universidad Popular

Universidad Popular a.k.a. Latin Center, wishes to promote neighborhood development and community empowerment via the pr-axis of participatory learning or popular education. Since its very inception in the early 1970’s, Universidad Popular has adopted the practice of branching itself out to various parts of the city, which explains its presence currently in Chicago Lawn, Pilsen, and Little Village. Universidad Popular’s brand of community work is rotted in the educational philosophy of Paulo Freire, the world renown Latin American educator. For this reason, Universidad Popular believes that in order to succeed in the community, education must be done with the participation of local residents. Due to such a standing, it shies away from traditional paradigms of community work characterized by designing programs for the community. Instead, it chooses to carry out activities, projects and programs such as adult, family, youth and early childhood education with, by and for the community. Universidad Popular's confidence in the ability of so-called “voiceless” people to empower themselves has led it to rely on self-help for the conceptualization and implementation of its programs. Today, as always, it depends heavily upon its volunteers—many of whom are current or former program participants—to help others in their quest for improvement. Facilitators and participants work together to design programs of study that stem from and are relevant to their lives. They are tailored to participants’ particular needs.